The “Sunday School” stage at Electric Zoo has been a mainstay for old-school house and techno heads since the festival debuted in 2009. The stage is known for its more underground feel, featuring house and techno styles that can sometimes be harder to find at a big festival. The idea is that fans will be “schooled” by some of the most-respected names in the scene, such as Carl Cox and Danny Tenaglia, as well as “unsung underground heroes.”

“In a festival atmosphere, people usually want to be entertained,” explained long-time techno and acid house producer Josh Wink. In other words, fans come to hear the big, familiar records so that they can sing along and dance with their friends.

Sunday School is an exception to that, and this year, for the first time, there will be two stages bearing the name at Electric Zoo, the Grove and Vinyl Only. After receiving positive feedback from their vinyl only stage at ‘Mysteryland’ in Bethel, New York earlier this year, the promoters behind Electric Zoo decided to try it again at their marquee festival in New York City.

Wink, who is also celebrating 20 years of his OVUM label, will curate the stage on Sunday, Aug. 31. He has invited Jenö, an acid house DJ known for his “unique, west coast sound,” Terrence Parker, a respected house and techno artist from Detroit and Elon, a New York underground tech-house producer to play with him. Fans can expect to hear a mix of house, tech house, acid house, and funky-oriented electronic music, spanning the range of contemporary house to old-school techno.

“Between all of us, we command a lot of years of experience, and a lot of years of collecting [vinyl]. I wanted to have people that do their craft really well, rather than just choosing names that would fill the tent,” he said.

A Philly native who has been making electronic music since the early ‘90s, Wink is best known for classics like “Higher State of Consciousness,” “I Am Ready” and “Don’t Laugh.” He also has an extremely extensive vinyl collection, which requires him to sort through more than 14,000 records to find the right ones for his Electric Zoo set.

“A lot of conscious work goes into this type of performance, but it’s something that I enjoy,” he said.

Wink said he switches off between playing vinyl, CDs and digital format because each one allows for a different type of spontaneity. On his computer, he has more than 8,000 records to choose from in the moment. With vinyl, however, he’s limited to the capacity of his record case, so the spontaneity has more to do with feeling out the atmosphere and vibe of the crowd.

“Half of my job is being an entertainer, and half of my job is being someone who educates,” he said.

Part of that education involves introducing younger fans to vinyl, something he calls “a little bit of a lost art.” A few years ago, Wink was watching a DJ play vinyl at a festival in Italy when a younger fan came up and asked why the DJ kept turning his back to the audience. When the record was over, the DJ would turn around, put the record back, and look for a new one.

“Right then and there I knew things had changed,” he said. “The kids nowadays, they only know the DJ to face them and look into a computer.”

When Wink started playing more shows with his computer, he said he felt a kind of disconnect with the crowd because he was spending so much time staring into the screen, sorting through all his tracks. With vinyl, he said it’s nice to have limits sometimes because he can find something without having to search for it.

“There’s something special with vinyl. When there’s a pop in a record or it skips, I get more reaction than a typical buildup in a track,” he said. “It’s really, really fun.”

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.